Question 2

BELOVED OSHO,

A LOT OF PEOPLE SAY THEY CAN'T REALLY LET THEMSELVES GO IN MEDITATION BECAUSE OF THE PHYSICAL PAIN, BECAUSE OF BUMPING INTO EACH OTHER AND FALLING DOWN. THEY FEEL THIS MAY BE SOME SORT OF EXCUSE FOR NOT REALLY LETTING GO.

COULD YOU TALK TO US ABOUT THIS PHYSICAL ASPECT?

A child can fall but he will not feel hurt. A drunkard, walking in the street, falls, but his body is preserved, his bones are not fractured. What is happening? The real thing is not the other bumping into you, the real thing is your resistance. You are afraid the other may bump into you, so you are resisting the whole time. Somebody may not bump into you, but you are afraid. Fear closes you, you become stiff, and if somebody then bumps into you that stiffness is hurt, not you. But you feel that you  are hurt, and then your mind says, "You were right to be afraid from the very beginning, and it was good to be alert so that nobody would bump into you."

The mind is a vicious circle. It gives you an idea, and because of that idea certain things happen. Then that idea becomes more fixed, you become more afraid, and then you are constantly in fear. How will you do meditation?

In Japan they have a science of wrestling -- they call it judo or ju-jitsu -- and the whole science consists of a very meditative thing: the judo wrestler learns how not to resist. When somebody attacks you, you have to absorb his energy, not resist, as if he is giving energy to you. Absorb his energy; don't resist. He is not the enemy, he is the friend coming to you; and when he hits you with his hand or his fist much energy is released. Soon he will be exhausted, so absorb the energy that is released from his fist. When he is exhausted, just by absorbing his energy you will feel stronger, stronger than ever. But you resist, you shrink, you become stiff so that you may not be hurt. Then his energy and your energy clash, and in that clash pain happens. It is you.

In meditation, remember this: if somebody bumps into you, absorb his energy. And here is a meditative person bumping into you -- you are lucky. He is releasing beautiful energy. A meditative energy is coming out of him; absorb it. Feel happy, feel thankful, and start jumping again. Don't be stiff, don't resist, because he was sharing his energy with you, unknowingly. Share it and soon you will come to know a different quality -- that of nonresistance. The whole body and mind then behave in a different way. You know a secret.

You fall on the ground suddenly: fall as if the ground, the earth, is your mother. Make it a rest, not a clash. Fall down but don't be stiff. If you are stiff you may get a fracture; the fracture will happen because you were stiff and there was a fight between you and the earth. And the earth is, of course, greater than you so you will be a loser. Fall down just like a drunkard. You see them falling every day on the street, but by the morning they are back, completely okay. Every night they fall down and their bones are never fractured. These drunkards know a certain secret that you don't know. What do they know? They fall without any consciousness on their part, without any ego there. They just fall. There is nobody to fight with the earth. The earth absorbs them and they absorb the earth.

Be a drunkard: fall without the ego. Enjoy the fall and feel friendly, intimate, with the earth. Soon you will be back on your feet with more energy than ever, and once you know the knack there will be no disturbance. You are hurt because you are in a fight, a continuous fight; you are hurt because you are always resisting. Consciously, unconsciously, you are always ready to resist. And when so many people are doing meditation you become afraid that somebody may hit you -- but if there is this fear, how will you meditate?

Rather than being in fear, be in love. With so many persons meditating much divine energy is released. This is a celebration, so why be in fear? Be in love. Enjoy this group consciousness, so many people dancing. Become part, lose your ego, be one with this collective force and energy. It will be difficult in the beginning because many lives have been lived with a fixed attitude of resistance. But someday you will become aware; someday a gap will be cleared and you will see. One experience will do. If you someday fall on the earth and there is no hurt and you feel beautiful, you have come to know a secret, you have stumbled upon the key. Now this key can be used on many locks. It is a master key.

Whenever someone comes to fight you, absorb him; when someone insults you, absorb him and see -- his insult becomes a flower. He is releasing energy. When someone insults you, he is giving away energy. He is foolish, stupid, so you absorb his energy, thank him, and go back and see what happens. When someone is ready to fight, simply allow him to hit you. Be as if you are not there and he is fighting an emptiness. Allow him, don't resist, and you will come to know. There is no other way; just listening to me will not do.

This is an art, it is not a science. Science can be explained, art has to be experienced.

It is just like swimming. If you tell a non-swimmer, "There is nothing to it, you just take a jump and start throwing your arms around," he will say, "What are you saying? This will be suicide." How can you explain to a non-swimmer that swimming is beautiful, the most beautiful experience of any that the body can give to you? It is such a flowing experience, such a oneness with the river. The whole body, every fiber of it, every cell, is alive. The water is life -- because all life arises out of the water. Water is vital. In your body you are eighty-five percent water, so eighty-five percent water, liquid, is meeting with a big river, or the ocean. You have come to the original source of vitality.

But you cannot explain to anyone who is a non-swimmer. It is not a science. You have to take him step by step -- in the beginning shallow water so he becomes confident, then by and by deeper and deeper water. In the beginning he will be awkward, he will be afraid, he will be fighting with the river, afraid that it might drown him. He will feel the river as being antagonistic, but soon he will realize that the river is not antagonistic, that it enjoys him swimming there, that it feels happy that one of its parts has come back. It is a celebrating moment for the river. A river with no one swimming in it is sad, but where many people dance and swim and enjoy, the river is happy. Soon he will feel that the river is helping him, that he is unnecessarily fighting, and by and by he will drop his movements and activity. When a swimmer becomes perfect he simply floats on the river. No activity is needed; the river does everything and the swimmer simply floats on the river.

In old yoga traditions there is a particular meditation -- just float on the river and feel one with it. Don't make any movement, don't move the body, let the river do the work. And if the river is doing the work and you are simply floating, nondoing, you will have the feeling of the whole existence. This is how existence floats. You are unnecessarily fighting.

In meditation you are entering a river of consciousness. So many people around you creates a tremendous force, a stream. Enter into it like a swimmer, not fighting, just floating, and see what happens. It is an art.

I cannot tell you, I can just indicate, and you have to experience. You have to wait until the experience happens to you, a single moment of experience that nobody is against you, nobody is going to harm you. The existence is whole, there will be no hurt.

And I say: Even if your bone is broken there will be no pain, there will be no hurt. If you fall down and you die, even then there will be no pain. If you are just falling back to mother earth there will be no pain. You are simply absorbed.

And who knows? -- in meditation, just someone bumping into you may become your first glimpse of an enlightenment, because it is a shock -- a sudden awareness comes to you. Who knows? -- just falling on the ground and breaking a bone may become your first satori, your first enlightenment. Nobody knows -- life is mysterious. Enlightenment has happened in such different ways. Nobody knows.